Natasha Holmes wants Students to be Critically Thinking Good Citizens

Posted: April 24, 2017

Science is about experimentation, creativity, even play. The greatest breakthroughs have come from those who pushed the known limits to ask why, how, and ultimately what if. If this is how the best science is done, then why don’t we start giving students autonomy to explore and create in the lab early in their university training? If we do, Natasha G. Holmes, Physics, says that perhaps they’ll get a taste of what it means to be a scientist early enough that they’ll choose science as a career path.

Holmes studies the teaching and learning of physics, especially in lab courses, but her work is applicable more broadly across many disciplines. “In the lab students have their hands on the equipment,” she says. “I’m looking at what they are getting or not getting out of that experience and also digging into what the lab space is actually good for. As a loftier, long-term goal, how can we provide students with transferable skills that will make them critical thinkers and good citizens?”